Shock
que dios nos ayude, dijo el hombrecito por la televisión,
y así el verbo se hizo carne,
el libre mercado había sido parido con dolor
en nuestras costas, y habitó entre nosotros para no irse jamás,
apagué la tele o la tele me apagó a mí solito,
de esto último recuerdo poco,
me arrojé contra la carne negra de mi cama
las paredes celestes
el cristo en llamas
del cuarto que fue de mis padres adquiría mayor altura,
y las heridas en el techo se multiplicaban,
concentrándome en un pequeño agujero
así fui tomando forma y consistencia,
empecé a llorar, y del techo cayó cal y yeso sobre mis ojos,
apagué las luces del cuarto y salí a la calle,
esa noche noche hubo un silencio noche
en la ciudad, los cerros, el mar, toda la nación,
éramos un país enfermo necesitado
de cal y yeso sobre nuestro rostro,
así nos repetían los técnicos perfectamente encorbatados
y doctorados en los yunaites,
con más cal en los dientes que nosotros,
era la noche más larga del año
y nadie quería que amaneciera
esa noche hubiera sido el fin del mundo
y todos en sus camas negras contentos hasta el otro día,
pero no, sólo era la noche más larga del año
y no estábamos en Alaska, para ser precisos,
y en la frente de los vecinos que lloraban desconsolados
había polvo y yeso también.
Shock
may god help us, said the little man on television,
and so the word was made flesh,
the free market was birthed in pain
on our shores, and it lived among us never to leave again
I turned off the tv or the tv turned me off me alone,
of this last part I don’t recall much,
I threw myself against the black flesh of my bed
the sky-blue walls
the christ in flames
as the room that had belonged to my parents gained greater height,
and the wounds in the ceiling multiplied,
absorbed on a pinhole
I then began to take shape and substance,
I began to cry, and from the ceiling lime and plaster fell into my eyes
I turned off the lights in the room and went out to the street
that night night there was a night silence
in the city, the hills, the sea, the entire country,
we were a sick land in need
with lime and plaster covering our faces,
the perfect tie-wearing technicians
with doctorates from the yunaites would tell us
with more lime on their teeth than we had,
that this was the longest night of the year
and no one wanted daybreak to arrive
that night could have been the end of the world
and everyone was content to stay in their black beds until morning,
but no, it was only the longest night of the year
and we were not in Alaska, to be precise,
and on the foreheads of neighbors who cried inconsolably
there was dust and plaster too.
.
Enrique Bernales Albites (Lima, 1975) is a Peruvian author and cultural promoter. He has a Ph.D. in Latin American Literature from Boston University. Currently he is Assistant Professor of Spanish at University of Northern Colorado. He has reorganized the mythical Poetry group Inmanencia. He has published Inmanencia (1998, 2020), Inmanencia: regreso a Ourobórea (1999), 21 poemas: Cerridwen (2004), Regreso a Big Sur (2019), the novel Los territorios ocupados (2008), and the anthology of Peruvian Poetry of the Nineties, Los relojes se han roto (Ediciones Arlequín, Guadalajara, 2005). His poems have been published in literary journals such as Colorado Poets Center, Confluencia, Hiedra, Hostos Review, Arkansas Review, Santa Rabia, Mood Magazine, Revista Anestesia, and others. He has participated in literary festivals and gatherings in United States, Mexico, Argentina, Germany, France and Spain. He publishes in the New York based magazine ViceVersa short stories, poems, reviews and urban chronicles on a weekly basis.
Lori DiPrete Brown, MS, MTS, A Distinguished Faculty Associate in Civil Society and Community Studies at the School of Human Ecology, and affiliated with the School of Medicine and Public Health, DiPrete Brown is the Director of the campus-wide 4W Women and Well-being Initiative and serves as an Associate Director of the UW-Madison Global Health Institute.
Sarli E. Mercado, PhD, is the co-Director of the 4W-International Women Collective Translation Project. As a literary critic, she has published and presented her work on contemporary Spanish-American poetry in the United States, Latin America, and Europe.